As the storm comes and goes
by IcedSoulFairy
Summary: Erza contemplates about that one time when the both of them exchanged places for the first time.


**Title: As the storm comes and goes**

**A/N: Yoh!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. Or the bits of the song.**

**Warning: Curses(?) might choke on too much fluff. Sorry.**

* * *

CRAAAASHH!

The thunder rolled it's hundredth sound like a heartbeat. The rain outside never showed any signs of stopping, even slowing down. It's been a cold, wet week in the town of Magnolia. The weather forecaster had earlier said it' be a bright, sunny day, but then again his predictions went exactly the opposite. Now the townspeople didn't have much choice, did they? Just like the mages of Fairy Tail who were huddled together in the guild hall warming themselves. And while the weather was rampaging the streets outside, tension was building up the guild's hall. Was it because of the weather that had now gotten into their nerves, or the dangerous silence and a fleeting nervousness that rose upon the earlier events, they didn't know. Maybe both?

CRAAAASSSHH!

"W-will he be alright?"

With one dull thump of the chair, the scarlet stood almost cutting off the air from anyone anticipating the next move.

"I'm going to follow him." Her expression was unreadable, but the scowl on her face would make anyone think she just snapped.

When in fact she _wasn't_. No. Maybe partly. She was just worried.

"B-but Erza, the storm's getting stronger each minute! You can't risk yourself!" Lucy tempted to stop the scarlet.

"Then that idiot should've known from the beginning. He's gone insane for doing such thing." she walked briskly across the aisle.

Then she started running.

* * *

_**Earlier...**_

CRAAAAASSSSSHH!

The sparks of lightning came across the window panes and the audible whistles of the wind would slap them too hard it almost broke. There in the crowd, a certain scarlet's expression was positively dangerous under the lighting effects it cast on her face.

"Hey, Juvia~are you sure you got nothing to do with this?" she heard someone said.

Her stare was fixed on her half- drunk cocoa; just thinking while the world around her was slowly, slowly getting nervous of the cruel weather outside that abruptly, their talks would come to a halt.

"E-eh? N-no. Juvia swears she's got nothing to do with the rain...but the rain actually makes Juvia feel a little uneasy..."

CRAAASSHH!

The water mage winced upon the rumbling sound.

"That's it. I'm going home." came a husky, deep voice from Erza's side. Gray.

"E-Ano.. Gray-sama, it's dangerous outside..."

"You can't be serious-" and when Erza's hand moved to stop the ice mage, she noticed the male's hands-were they shaking? Not to mention very pale.

"Well, if I go home any later I'm pretty sure I can't, right? I'm worried about the leak in my room." he turned around, casually putting his hands in the pockets.

"Well, at least get your coat on, Idiot!" Cana thuds the table with a barrel of alcohol.

"Ja..I'll be seeing you guys tomorrow, then." Just like that. He walks away and succumbs in the thunderstorm outside.

"Wait, Gray-"

* * *

And that's what happened.

"Seriously, they both know they're in for trouble, don't they?" Cana hissed.

"Hmmm..I guess.. But I think Erza can handle him." Mira smiled in concern.

"..still, didn't you notice he was acting strange lately?" Levi pointed out.

"Yeah.. Maybe it's because of the weather? What do you think, Natsu?" Lucy buried her chin to her folded arms.

For a moment, Natsu's expression changed in something close to concern for those two. But then, seeing Lucy worried too, his tone broke in a light, cheerful manner.

"Let's just leave them be. Come on Lucy, I'll get you home!"

"Aye!"

_'Damnit. What's gotten to you now, Gray?'_

* * *

Erza's mad. _Really mad_. Mad at him for doing things recklessly like that, for running away when they're in the middle of an misunderstanding; mad at herself for worrying when she knows the ice mage was more then capable of taking care of himself. Actually, it wasn't like an argument. It's just that Gray's been having terrible mood swings like an ice on the verge of breaking with one false move, and Erza's been trying her best to put up with him but then again, he's stubborn just as she is. She thinks of more excuses to justify her actions, to find a reason to his sudden change-don't tell it's because of this storm-but she hasn't find anything that satisfies her.

How was she worked up with this all of a sudden? She doesn't know either. It frustrated her more to know that. And there's something in her that tells her to follow him.

With every crash of the lightning, her heart pounds in her ribcage more and more intensely. It's beginning to get into her nerves. The skies above her looked like it's twilight when it should be just a high afternoon, but she didn't care. The water splashed through her trail. Her armor getting soaked minute by minute. Soon enough, her scarlet was sticking to her face, too.

CRAAAAASSSSSHHH!

_'Damnit, Gray!'_ she oddly feels like she really needs to get to him. Like every pierce if lightning struck down her heart, and it sure sends shiver down her spine.

She wouldn't happen to get scared of thunder and lightning now, would she?

She runs. Really runs. She felt something was wrong.

Then, when it felt like forever,she stopped in her tracks in front of a familiar wooden door. She steadied herself and took a deep breath to calm her adrenaline down before changing into her white blouse and blue skirt. She held the doorknob, only to be surprised that it was open. Stepping cautiously inside, she made sure to lock the door behind her.

CRAAAAASSSSSHH!

"-STOP!"

_ 'Shit! Gray!'_ Erza hurriedly goes upstairs preparing every armor and making sure the unknown enemy would piss his pants when she enters the room. Was that-a person sobb-

The room was-well in a perfect mess, like some drunkard stumbled upon anything and turned everything in a massive chaos. But what shocked Erza more was the lone figure in the disfigured, disarrayed bed. The person was in a mess, too. It completely struck her to see him torn, tangled in his own sheets, head deeply buried in between his knees while his hands trying to hug himself. He was, in every strike in lightning, flinching, curling himself tighter in a ball. Shaking, trembling. He was crying, stifling his incoherent mumbles.

"-m-im-so-I'm sor-sorry-"

No. Gray. Just that, all anger dwelling inside her vanished and was replaced with burning pain, sympathy, love. The next thing he knew, he was engulfed in an enormous warmth. Incredible, familiar warmth that it hurts. Some part of him, no- a big part of him was eating his soul away. I don't deserve this.

_'I don't. I don't'_

Erza could feel the man shiver underneath her touch. Why are you rejecting me? The sound of thunder rolling, the hearts pounding in her ears. She could hear them. And she could feel them intensify with each passing second. He tried to move away from her touch.

CRAAAAAASSSSSH!

She heard him gasp and at the same time tighten his grasp on his knees, shrinking himself. He choked on a couple of times, mumbling what appears to be a mantra of words repeated over and over again..

_Ever since this fucking weather screwed up, that- that dream kept hunting me.. but it wasn't just a nightmare. My past.. My mistake.. Funny, did my sins come back to hunt me down for good after all these years? That's right. I've been running away for too long. When in fact, I shouldn't be here at all.. Laughing, enjoying this life with them. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve you-_

"-ust close your eyes.. The sun is going down.."

_That... Song.._ There's a hand in his sweat-damped raven. Someone was holding him tightly, possessively.. But it feels good.

"-you'll be alright, no one can hurt you now."

Hesitantly, his arms reached up to her back. And he felt so secure in there. It doesn't matter, it's her after all.

"Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound...hmmm..mmm..hmmmhmm..."

She continued weaving her lullaby, and he continued listening to her; smelling her scent in the back of her neck, hearing the soothing heartbeats like a requiem, getting lost in the warmth and the gentle rocking she attempts to calm him down; feeling her next to him.

_Would it hurt to be selfish a little bit more?_

An unspoken answer for an unspoken question came to the mind of the ice mage.

"S-stay-?" he croaked.

Behind his ear he could make out her smiling. "Yes. I will, I won't leave you again."

"I'm sorry..."

"No, Gray..I'm sorry. I was supposed to be the one who'd understand you the most- I'm sorry I let anger cloud my judgment. I should-I should've known better.." she tried to push away the tears springing from her eyes.

He buried his head deeper into her shoulders. Erza relieved a sigh. How ironic, he would've felt the same way that time at the river when they were still kids...the pain, the hurt in seeing the other suffer by the hunting past. She knows it was the same situation for them both, the only thing that differed is that they've now exchanged places. He was always there for her, she thought and looked up to him being so strong to face the odds without backing down. She failed to realize, he was doing the same trick she succeeded for a short time to fool herself back then. He covered himself in a thick, cold ice-punishing himself for retribution. They didn't know about the scarlet's past until they discovered the Tower. They didn't know about his past until they stumbled upon the Island-_but that wasn't all._

And while she was absently thinking about this all, she continued humming to the sound of the lullaby that she learned from her mother. It always calmed her down when she woke up to nightmares. It became her defense, like the little child she was once without knowledge of magic.

"-hmmmhhmmm..hhhmmmmmm...- you and I'll be safe...and...sound...-"

_Don't worry, Gray... I'll be the one to protect your tears this time.._

* * *

She didn't remember falling asleep. But when she came to, she slowly woke up to a familiar face across her. Breathing easily, evenly as the storm outside subsided some hours earlier. The sun peeked through the curtains and she focused herself entirely to the man beside her. Gray was still clutched tightly in an embrace. She remembered last night, when he was vulnerable-fragile even that one move might break what's left of him; when even in his sleep he continued to say the words "no", "sorry", and how his face would be once again be contorted in pain and agony, while drops of tears would escape the ice mage's shut-tight eyes. She remembered how much he held on across her neck, like one lost boy hanging for his dear life, and how she returned each painful grasp with gentle, reassuring pats on his back and hugging him closer._ It hurts her too._

If this was some another usual occasion, she would have already celebrated inwardly for having that certain feeling the being the older, the wiser. Of course, it was a fact that she was the older, but then when it comes to him, she'd always felt being the younger: someone he spoils over childish things( of which she wasn't shy to show him that side of her); someone who should be looked after to, someone in more need than he himself. Sometimes it'd annoy her for him being so much overprotective. But she can't help but be secretly thankful for it.

But, right now all she felt was that sinking feeling. It's drowning her on the inside.

_He should've felt this way when he saw me like this many times before_. Her heart swelled at the thought. She unconsciously pulled the ice mage even closer, hoping he might hear the unspoken message.

Erza stared at the sight of the disheveled mass of raven before her. He looks..better like this..at peace. The ice mage's eyes were closed and his eyelashes kisses his cheeks. Stray dark locks rested in the bridge of his nose and scatter across forehead. She brushed them said with her thumb._ So cute._

"E-eh?- I must be hungry.." Lazily but carefully she slid down the bed.

_'It's okay if he doesn't tell me right now. I guess he's stubborn like I am.'_ she thoughtfully smiled. Casually putting things aside in order, she finally made her way across the room and jump down the stairs to prepare breakfast for the two of them.

* * *

**This relationship can be portrayed either way, close friends, or lovers. Meh. I'm frustrated that I took it upon Gray. Waaaiii~ but he got Erza, so I guess it still worked. Was it short? Was it good? Please do tell me your opinion. My eye bags would be so glad if you do. I wrote this at 10 pm..and I should be asleep, I should be enjoying my pillow, and my mom's probably coming down to rain down machine guns any minute by now, and I should be listening to my favorite radio show. But I'm here burning my eyelashes like normal school days...**

**Now, my phone and I am totally beat up...so, yeah.. See ya guys~ *drags oneself upstairs***

**Review?**


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